Exit Belknap

Attho konr of 10:30 yesterdny moming Mr. Belknap stepped down and out of Mr. Grnnt's cabinet to escape impeachment. Artieles of impeaehment had been prepared b.y a coniniitteo of the House, aiid would havo been adopted duriug the morning howr. Bolknap was aware of this. Grant was also aware of it. Bclknap took time by the forelock, and went in liis resignatiou, which Grant üt once acoepted. The strangest thing about it is that Grant should havo acoepted the resignatiou, unless it bo that Belknap should have teud.eïe4 it, Has anything penod to cause örant to lose his wónderrat confidence in Belknap? True, a committeo of Congress liad discovered the f act that Belknap had been corruptiy trading in post-sutlerships ; that he had realized some $10,000 by that practico, nnd thnt his wife was in receipt of some $6,000 per year on account of the official Imsband's official rogucry. But was there anything in all that to cause Grant to lose confideuce iu Belknap ? Belknap . was one of that peculiar shoulder-etraji riug of parasites, which included also Adam Badeau and "the Sylph," by which Grant, in the White House as in the field, has ever been surrounded. These men were members of his military staff in tho field. They were his eamp cronies, whoflattered his vanity and buzzcd his littlegreatness. He carried them with him to the White House, in defiance of good taste and a repubiican sen se of propiïety, -which looks with no favor pon a civil magistrate surrounded by military courtieis and parasites. One of them turned out to be n Sylph ; but that did not cause Grant to lose confidence in him. Another has turned out to be a roguo ia the sutlership line ; but as even nearer relativos of Graat have been in th; same line of roguery, why shouJd that cause Grantto lose coöfidence in his military seoretary ? Vhy vras Belknap such a fooi as to resign ? Kesignation under the charge was confession of guilt. It may be said that hjs guilt was established by the proafs before the committee. But what of that? The committee had no power to convict. What Belknap should have done was to protest his virtue, as the Sylph did ; gct Grant to protest his confidenee in him, as in the Sylph's case, and pend for Sfcorrs. Does Belknap imagine that the Senate would have found him gnilty before the end of his master's tei'm ü he had followed the example of the Sylph ? The retirement of Belknap from the Cabinet rendere it necessary, under tho circumstances, that Graut shiall appoint lim to a diplomatic station abroad. [Jnfortunately, the mission afc Brussels, lately vacated by Jones, is not now vacant. But, luckily, there is a robabiiity that the mission at St. James will soon be open for a new man. 3chenck is hurrying home to vindícate lis virtue against complicity in the Stnma Mine business. Probably Scheuck will want to go back. fhere, then, will be an opening lor Belmop. He may not be so expert a pokerist as Schenck. Possibly he may not possess Sohenck's qualifications as roperin for a ring of bogus gold mino awindlers. But in a different way, Beltuaij's qualifications for a diplomatic mission abroad are as good as Schench's, Singham's, or those of any other man ' high in the confldence oï the o -